The present invention arose from recognition of a need to assist people who are maintaining lawns where pinecones drop from nearby trees. Clearing a lawn of such cones is a prerequisite to mowing the lawn and maintaining the usual desired clean appearance of the lawn. This is typically accomplished by manually removing the individual cones from the lawn, since their size, weigh and rough texture make it impractical to remove them by raking or sweeping. The bending or stooping action required to manually pick up the cones is uncomfortable to many people and is impossible to others, particularly those who are elderly. The present device was designed to permit individual cones to be manually lifted from the ground surface without stooping.
While designing specifically for pinecones, this device is equally applicable to the lifting of other three dimensional ground or floor objects which might be found freely resting on a ground or floor surface in an individual manner, as opposed to being in a stack or pile. Such objects might include various natural objects, such as cones, fruits or nuts which have dropped from a tree, as well as man-made objects, such as tennis balls, baseballs or golf balls. As will be evident from the following disclosure, the device is capable of receiving and lifting a wide range of three dimensional objects having a relatively solid outside configuration.